Social media highlights from the CEO Institute

Social media is here to stay

I was invited last week to speak at the CEO Institute on ‘The power of connection for business: social networking’. I painted a picture of where social media fits in the overall public relations and communication plans of a business and explained where the opportunities to engage on these platforms for businesses are.

The presentation generated some very important questions from the small and medium business owners attending the session. The four key points the group took away were:

1. Social media isn’t going anywhere

Whether you like it or not, social media is here to stay. And as today’s younger generations will grow up and start ruling our businesses, social media will just be the ‘normal’ platform to use to engage in their personal as well as business lives. So why not start understanding what this is all about today?!

2. What’s your big picture?

What do you want to achieve from your engagement on social media? Have clear objectives that tie in with business outcomes and your social media planning, interactions and measurement will be much more effective.

3. Go where your target market is

Does your target market read the community newspaper or the industry magazine? Is it on LinkedIn or on Facebook? Does it meet regularly through business groups? Identify the best ‘places’ to reach out to your target market and simply be visible wherever it is.

4. Quality over quantity

My philosophy towards social media is, generally speaking, to do less, but do it well. I recommend picking one social media platform to which you will devote the appropriate resources to be successful, rather than making a poor attempt at too many platforms. I know there is divergence of opinions between social media experts when it comes to this, but this is my personal and professional point of view.

By Kim Larochelle, PR Mentor

Kim is partnering with small business marketing expert Deb Pilgrim to hold a two-day workshop on PR & Marketing for Small Business Success. The workshop, to be held on 12 & 19 September, will give participants the ability to implement a cost-effective marketing, PR and social media plan for their small business.

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